Apple is in talks to buy Beats, report says

Apple is in talks to buy Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion, the Financial Times is reporting.

The deal could be announced as early as next week.

The Santa Monica-based Beats, founded by rapper Dr. Dre and record producer Jimmy Iovine, makes the ubiquitous Beats by Dre headphones. The six-year-old company released a subscription music-streaming service called Beats Music in January, which most speculators bet is the object of Apple’s interest.

The Internet, of course, had a lot of opinions about the rumored deal:

Beats is the only company that’s leapfrogged Apple for the love of the music-loving public. Apple could be shoring up its base.